Ketchup

So, I just wanted to post a little quick hit about not much of anything. Feel free to read anything about nothing.

Let me start with last weekend’s Sox and Yankees series at Fenway… our Sox dropped two of three to the Limping Empire. In case you missed it, that means they have dropped four of the last six, even before Roger rockets in to save their season. True enough, the Bombers — hey… Bombers and a Rocket… never mind — were still twelve and a half out at the end of that, but it has to have boosted their morale, yeah? The good news is we are still up on them seven to five for the season and we won’t meet again until August. Tough for them to make up ground on us if we aren’t playing against one another (and we don’t tank).

Anyway, dropping the first two to a decent Oaktown team — Haren? Yes. DiNardo? Really? — doesn’t have me brimming with confidence. I guess it is just losing the last three in a row is tough to take. Wonder if they’ve done that this year (I’m not checking)?

Speaking of Sox, I’ll get more photos up from the Braves game at some point this week. I also have some of Beckett and D-Mat from last week’s Tribe series, so those will follow. Since no one gave me specific feedback on the sets, other than to “keep ’em coming,” which is of course appreciated, I think I’ll try posting less and see how I feel about it. I might miss the story telling part, but I can’t tell if you care…

And, just to round out the baseball talk, have you been reading about Gary Sheffield and his remarks about Black and Latin ballplayers? Have you noticed that I added a Recent Reading list on the right-side of my front page? Jason had me add one for him over on BBn and it was something I was also thinking about for my own, but using a different tool and for a different reason. He’s using Google Reader to pimp what he’s reading in his feeds. I wanted to replace augment my Asides with something that was quicker hitting and didn’t require blog posting. Being able to add a comment to a del.icio.us bookmark fits the bill perfectly, other than you can’t leave a comment, but again, maybe you don’t care to do so.

Anyway, I read stuff throughout the day when I need little mental breaks from work and it is nice to simply click a TAG button on my browser to post a link to my del.icio.us bookmarks page with a note (and not break my blogging at work rule). More often than not I have read stuff and thought to post an Aside, but of course had to wait till I got home, but then just wouldn’t go thru the motion of busting out the Aside for it. So, now I feel less like a blog ignorer even if I’m not actually blogging every day. I know I have already picked up a few items off Jason’s list and Ed has done the same in both spots, so what about you? Read anything you also found interesting?

Ach… the tangent of it all! Back on Sheff, I have to say, I can’t make up my mind if the guy is now backtracking or not. For a guy that talks a lot, I think he has a hard time clearly expressing his point. The man’s heart is in the right place, I’m sure of it, but his words are not helping him out here.

I’m not a big Ozzie Guillen fan, but the man does make a solid point about Latin players being hungry to play, which is what I thought was a big difference between the two groups being compared. For the Latin players, baseball is their ticket to the States, but inner-city kids (like Sheff talks about) are already here and, I hate to say it because I might be ignorant in doing so, but probably playing basketball and not baseball. Okay, I said it… I hope facts bear that out.

Sheff’s teammate Carlos Guillen is also right that the Latin players may be less willing to speak out because they fear they’ll lose their chance. Sheff wonders why teams aren’t setting up academies here and I think he may not be considering that most schools with sports programs provide baseball as one of their main sports, right? Sure, not the same thing or totally focused on baseball all the time, but still an opportunity, right?

Ultimately, I think it comes down to the choices made by the kids. I think kids relate more to the basketball players than to the baseball players. Is it because there are more of them? I don’t know. Is it because most basketball players are flashier or (seem to) promote where they came from more? Again, I don’t know. I know that I have heard Garrett Anderson and Torii Hunter talk about this same subject and come across a lot better than Sheff. Maybe if they promote more, then they can change things, and maybe that’s what he’s calling for, but he is forgetting the business aspect of the game and it is cheaper to do business in Latin countries than in the States.

So, I think in this case, his own actions will be louder than these words. Maybe Sheff is already promoting a program of his own in Detroit, another city he previously played in or his own hometown.

Okay, I feel like I have a lot of “maybe” and “might” going on in here with this and I shouldn’t probably even be writing about it. I certainly didn’t intend to call this much attention to it when I began writing, but it has been on my mind. Call me out if I need it.

On to more trivial matters, my Crackalackin is starting to wane. I have completed every Achievement in the original content except one (Ring Leader) and some from the free downloadable content. This is by far my best showing on any Achievement providing title, which all of them are for the 360. This means I am soon to find myself without a game to play for a while (or until Ed and Colin finish Lego Star Wars II with “The Chewey”). Maybe I’d play some more Halo 3 beta, but that is ending in four days…

Maybe some more blogging, or better yet, blog redesigning — my current colors are a love child of flickr and our ESPN fantasy baseball league — will get done around here. Maybe a smattering of some Netflix too. I have had three movies for about two months now, so I think I’m not getting the good part of that deal at the moment, but I did watch Jarhead last night. That Maggie Gyllenhaal sure is cute with a shaved dome, but the flick was merely okay.

So, I think that’s enough of this. Time to jump thru some purple hoops.